Information handling devices (“devices”), for example laptop computers, tablets, smart phones, desktop computers, smart TVs, navigation devices, automobile consoles, etc., may be used to process user inputs, e.g., user voice inputs received by an audio receiver such as a microphone. For example, speech recognition technology enables a device to transform spoken words into machine text, e.g., by converting a digital audio signal into a machine text word, for use in an underlying application, e.g., a word processing document, a search application, etc.
Conventional improvements in speech recognition technology have primarily focused on accuracy of the recognition, i.e., accurately identifying the word or words actually spoken by the user. Some advances have been made in processing natural language user inputs such that various user inputs may be mapped to a predetermined input for taking an action, e.g., executing a command, responding to a query, etc. An example of a conventional application using such techniques is a so-called virtual assistant.